


Very Practical

by dragon_with_a_teacup



Category: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard - Rick Riordan, RIORDAN Rick - Works
Genre: Chierro, Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Hypothermia, Multi, Post-The Ship of the Dead, Protective Magnus Chase, She/Her Pronouns For Alex Fierro, because Fierrochase is not creative, just an excuse for cuddling okay, questionable hypothermia treatment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-09-02 14:04:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16788397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragon_with_a_teacup/pseuds/dragon_with_a_teacup
Summary: Magnus' lazy day is interrupted when Alex appears, half-frozen, on the other side of one of the Hotel's innumerable doors. Naturally, Magnus takes it upon himself to help the child of Loki warm up.Set after The Ship of the Dead, so there are a couple minor spoilers. But this is mostly just Magnus/Alex fluff.





	Very Practical

Magnus liked this kind of day best. No mortal injuries, no crises, no impending apocalypses. Just a typical day in Hotel Valhalla.

(Well, granted, that _did_ involve mortal injuries, but they didn’t last, which was the relevant point )

So far, he had spent the morning lounging in his rooms, sleeping in and doing nothing productive whatsoever. He’d grabbed lunch in the lounge of floor nineteen, and was now toying with the idea of heading to the Chase Space for a while. He had some paperwork to finish, and besides, he rather liked being on hand in case he was needed.

Just as he made up his mind and turned for the elevators that would take him out of the hotel and into downtown Boston, another door’s handle rattled. Hotel Valhalla had so many doors, Magnus often didn’t pay attention to them all—he couldn’t. It didn’t help that they opened to different places everyday.

It was straight up _Harry Potter_ in this place.

For this reason, Magnus felt wary as he approached the shaking door. Anything at all could reside on the other side—the fires of Muspellheim, the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, Cleveland… Did he dare open it?

“L-let m-me in, some-somebody!”

Magnus blinked. He knew that voice. Its owner sounded especially irate today, but yes, Magnus would know this voice anywhere.

He turned the handle, then tentatively pulled the door open.

And immediately contracted frostbite.

At least, that was what it felt like, even to Magnus. His ability to withstand extreme temperatures seemed to stand no chance at all against the massive blast of frigid air that swept over him. He barely had a chance to register anything beyond the feeling of _shit-that’s-cold_ , but he did manage to notice a gust of snow sweeping into the hallway. The land beyond the doorway seemed to contain nothing but wind, snow, ice…

And Alex Fierro.

The child of Loki staggered inside the moment Magnus opened the door, and promptly collapsed on the floor.

“Alex!” Magnus cried, though it felt as though icicles were coating his throat. He slammed the door on wherever-that-was and knelt down. “Alex, are you okay?”

He laid his hand on Alex’s shoulder, but instantly jerked it back. “Why are you soaking wet?”

Alex scrambled onto hands and knees, coughing feebly, entire body shuddering. “G-gods, it’s… c-cold.”

The lack of a snarky comment from Alex was what really sent concern shivering through Magnus. Ignoring the grumbled, stuttering protests, Magnus dragged Alex back to standing and slung a slender arm around his own shoulders. Together, the two einherjar stumbled toward Magnus’ room.

He briefly considered making for Alex’s own rooms, but since he had abruptly found himself bearing basically the _entire_ weight of two people, he elected for his, which were marginally closer.

Magnus shouldered the door open and helped Alex lie down on the couch. Winded and still a bit shocked from the unexpected burst of winter air, Magnus ended up kneeling on the floor. It was only then he was able to get a closer, more thorough look at his significant other.

A thin layer of snow and ice coated Alex’s green hair, turning it a paler shade than usual. A worryingly blueish tint permeated Alex’s lips. A tremble seemed to have made itself at home in Alex’s entire body, which had curled into the fetal position.

“Alex,” Magnus tried again. “What happened?”

“Wh-what does it l-look like, g-gen-genius?” A single hazel eye peered out at him, some of the familiar reproach glinting behind it.

Hesitantly, Magnus reached out and brushed back a lock of her hair. It was so frozen that it just dropped back across her forehead the moment Magnus took his hand away.

“Okay,” he declared. “Take off your clothes.”

Alex raised an eyebrow. “Are y-you asking me to… s-strip, Chase?”

Magnus rolled his eyes, willing himself not to blush. “Not for the reason you’re thinking, Fierro. You need to shower. Come on.”

Magnus marched into the bathroom and turned on the shower—he didn’t go for outright boiling, though, not wanting to shock Alex’s system. It then took several minutes to coax Alex inside the bathroom. He handed over over a set of clean clothes (a Hotel Valhalla T-shirt and pair of soft green flannel pajama pants) and firmly closed the door, ignoring the feeble protests issuing from the other side. However, he eventually heard the fall of the water change as she got in the shower and knew he could breathe a bit more freely at last. The warm water would help her, he assured himself. Now he just hoped she would stay in there long enough to properly thaw out.

In the meantime, Magnus got down to business. He hastily dried off the couch and the floor, found a few spare blankets in his closet, and set out constructing a makeshift nest on the couch. He was stacking logs in the fireplace when he heard the shower shut off.

“There better not be a trace of that ice left in your hair!” he called. Was that long enough? He wasn’t sure. He didn’t know anything about how to heal this the normal way. If he thought Alex would have permitted it, he would have just used the powers of Frey to heal the hypothermia, frostbite, and whatever else might be wrong. But Alex was Alex, and Alex was not one to let Magnus—or anyone—anywhere near the private thoughts and feelings that resided within that pink and green clad form.

So instead, Magnus struck a match and touched the small flame to the logs. They caught, and the fire grew quickly, bathing the area in soft golden-orange light. Behind him, he heard the bathroom door open.

“Setting the mood?”

He stood and turned. Alex looked a little more human now, regarding him with a small smirk on her face. She wasn’t visibly shivering anymore, wrapped in the clothes Magnus had given her, as well as a fluffy robe, embroidered with the letters HV. Her hair no longer had ice in it, and her skin was a healthier shade. Good, the shower had done at least some of the work Magnus hoped it would.

He gestured at the couch. “You still need to warm up. And I want to know what in the name of Helheim you were doing in the middle of the Arctic circle, or wherever that place was.”

Alex moved to the couch, drew her legs up to her chest, and wrapped her arms around them. Magnus wasn’t sure if this was out of a feeling of defensiveness, or if she still felt cold. Either way, her posture compelled him to move forward and sit down next to her. He didn’t reach for her, though. Even now, even with Alex in such a state, he couldn’t help but wait for her to make the first move.

Luckily, he didn’t have to wait long: the moment he was settled at her side, she scooted close and leaned against him, tucking her head under his chin. He bit his lip to keep from smiling as he wrapped his arms around her, glad she couldn’t see his face.

“Don’t feel too pleased,” she muttered. “This is survival. Very practical.”

“Of course,” he nodded, still grinning. A memory floated back to him, of another time Alex had huddled close to ward off the cold. _You’re warm and summery_ she had said then, mere moments before her lips had found his for the first time.

“So,” he murmured, as he dragged a blanket closer and draped it over them both. “Out with it. What happened?”

She sighed, adjusting the blanket’s position on her shoulder. “It was an accident. I had plans to get lunch with Samirah, but the elevator opened to Niflheim instead. By the time I realized what was happening, I was stuck there. The elevator doors had shut, so I had to find another way back into the Hotel. Obviously, it took me… a minute.”

Magnus considered that. The one and only time he had been in Niflheim, he’d been with his friends. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be in that dreadful, inhospitable land alone, knowing no one knew where he was. It had been frightening enough the first time.

“But you’re okay now,” he said, as much to reassure himself as to comfort her, making a mental note to text Sam in a while and let her know what had happened and that Alex was all right. “You found your way back.”

She nodded, her still-damp hair brushing against his chin. “Yeah, I just found the smell of idiot Frey-son and followed that.”

“Ha ha ha,” he said dryly. She shook a bit in his arms, but this time it was from laughter and not the cold. He peered down at her, smiling. “Are you feeling better now?” he asked. “Want me to let go of you?”

“I’m fine, Maggie. Honestly, you worry too much.” Magnus didn’t fail to notice, though, that she didn’t move away from his embrace.

“No I don’t,” he protested, though it more a token objection than a product of genuine emotion. “You looked like you had taken a swim in a pool of half-melted snow cone. I think that’s a great reason to be worried!”

“That’s probably because I did fall in the water at one point,” she commented, voice way too casual for that kind of statement. “No Jack around to test the ice, you know.”

“What?” he cried. “You really fell in?” He sat up straighter, trying to examine her for injuries or signs of frozen fingers and toes or something.

She swatted him away, sitting up as well. “For like a second. Besides, it’s fine. I’m an einherji, and I’m back in Valhalla, and I’ve got my own personal obnoxious space heater. It’s cool.”

“Not literally.”

Her lips twitched. “Right. Now sit back, Maggie.”

He obeyed, letting her settle against him again, grumbling under her breath something that sounded like “dork” and “calm down” and “it’s not like it’ll kill me.”

Yes, this was definitely the kind of day Magnus liked best.


End file.
